Introduction

Hello readers! Welcome to my COM 1113 blog, where I will be posting content surrounding the concepts discussed in my graphic software class! For the blog post today, we will be discussing composition of photos and how to properly “work the shot” to obtain non amateur-looking images!

Theme

Instead of choosing a predisposed theme and finding the scenes that would be the best fit, I decided to let the world around me lead the way. As I walked around campus, I paid a little more attention to my surroundings. Then, without effort, I easily found inspiration. Although off the cuff it seems like I chose a very simple theme of flowers, this theme is definitely more than what meets the eye. I found a patch of flowers called “Sky’s the limit climbing roses,” known for its free flowering and blossoming tendencies. And, as I began to photograph them, my theme became more evident. Recently in another class I had begun re-reading the poem “Sailing to Byzantium” by William Butler Yeats. For those who don’t know,this poem discusses the mortality of life, as he sees his body deteriorate with his age. He also discusses a sense of rebirth with old age in which can be expressed through something immortal and timeless, like art. When seeing these yellow climbing roses all in different stages of life, I found it a beautiful representation of the course of life; and the climbing rose’s blooming unpredictability represents the unpredictability in life with its constant twists and turns. So as you can see, this theme definitely holds meaning, but now let’s let the images do the talking!

Balance

To begin explaining how my photos were created while “working the shot,” it is crucial we start at the beginning of my photoshoot, with the budding roses. This shot was done using balance. Similar to the alignment of the rule of thirds, “balance” is done by evening out the weight of the subjects in the photo. (Pete,2018) As you can see in the photo, there are six different rose buds, varying in color and size in the center of the screen. The best way for me to explain how this depicts balance is using a tool out of the “rule of thirds” handbook. I used the grid on my phone to properly adjust the roses to all align in the middle of the screen, but more particularly in the middle three boxes of the grid. I think using this method proved efficient, as I believe this photo is very easy on the eyes and balanced from top to bottom, and side to side.

Contrast & Viewpoint

In addition to balance, another composition technique I employed was contrast within the subject matter. In this photo, we see one singular bloomed rose, at the peak of its prime. The vibrancy of the yellow petals and orange center pair very well with the green leaf background. In fact, when looking at the color wheel, yellow and green are very compatible as the vibrancy of the yellow brings out the Earth tones of the green, grounding the color and making the flower stand out even more. This shot was slightly more difficult than the rest, as the leaves were not completely filling in the background, so the purple HPU umbrellas seemed to peek through. Although I don’t think it ruined the photo, I chose to do a retake anyway using a different viewpoint.

Contrast & Viewpoint Retake

As we can see in the retake, the flower is pointing more to the left of the screen, and consequently towards the rising sun. Also, the purple umbrellas seem less visible from this new angle. Although I’m not in love with the angle the flower is protruding from, overall using a different viewpoint greatly improved the attention of the photo by drawing the attention solely to the flower, not allowing for a busy background.

Rule of Thirds

Upon researching all the different ways I can “work the shot,” I decided to try an element that I had little to no experience with before; the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds consists of using the photo grid on a cell phone or photography device in order to compose a more dynamic, interesting image. For my application of the rule of thirds, I attempted to align the decaying flower in the left third of the image. I would argue that despite it being my first time really attempting the rule of thirds, this photo was a good attempt, and definitely a favorite when looking back at all my photos.